1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates broadly to computer memory, and more specifically to a memory page pool architecture and method of use.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a computer, an Operating System (OS) manages the computer's hardware and software resources. When a computer is first turned on, a bootstrap loader is run which loads the operating system into memory, and allows it to run. The bootstrap loader runs various smaller programs, which set up the computer to run. One of the bootstrap loader's tasks at start up is to set up divisions of memory that hold the operating system and other applications. When the Operating System (OS) is run, the memory set up is done anew each time. It is never guaranteed that any application running with the operating system will access the same set of memory pages each time the computer is restarted or run on a different computer, even if the different computer has the same Operating System (OS). The bootstrap system also establishes data structures for flags, signals, and semaphores, for communicating between the computer's subsystems and applications.
In prior systems, if an application uses memory pages to build sophisticated data structures, the building process took a long amount of time. Further, rebuilding the data structure each subsequent time the application started took almost the same amount of time. What is needed is a way to rebuild these data structures in a time-saving and efficient manner.